NOTES for Php 2:1-4

Today the apostle Paul speaks about the motivation behind our actions. It is very important to consider why we wish to do one thing or another. Even quite respectable actions can be performed with very disreputable motives. A simple example is the situation in which someone gives alms not in order to help a beggar, but to display his own righteousness to those around him, to God, and to himself. Yet this is a simple situation... and a fairly harmless one. It is far worse when we begin to act solely to prove to someone else that he is wrong—out of contentiousness. Arguing for the sake of arguing, activity for the sake of activity... This destroys both ourselves and relationships within the Church, as well as our relationship with God. The apostle Paul offers a simple solution, though one unattractive to a vain person: simply to acknowledge that other people, their feelings, and my relationship with them are more important than my righteousness and wisdom—which, alas, are most often imaginary.